French farmers organized a massive event on the Champs Elysées yesterday that will continue today, during the long weekend holiday. I generally avoid that area at all costs because it's overpriced, sterile and is a magnet for crime. It's been quite a hit and has drawn large crowds. French farms still have a small, family farm feel compared to the massive, corporate owned farms of the US but it's changing. More from The Guardian:
By bringing in 8,000 plots of earth and 150,000 plants to the city and installing them, amid sheep and cattle, along three-quarters of a mile of the thoroughfare, struggling farmers are attempting to highlight an aspect of French life which they believe is too often overlooked by Paris.
In the ravages of a crisis which has seen production costs soar and product prices fall, representatives of the agricultural sector say farmers are being brought to their knees.
But William Villeneuve, president of the young farmers' union, insisted the greening of the Champs Elysées was more a celebration than a protest.
"We are not here to bemoan our plight," he said. "We are here to promote our trade." The farmers wanted to make French consumers reflect on "what they have on their plates" and how it got there, he added.
